My At Pro ran into some trouble in Philadelphia

pballwiz · Jul 17, 2017

So I went to visit my sister in law who live in Manayunk, PA which is in the Northwest part of Philadelphia.
Of course I brought my detector since it's an old city with lots of history.
I hunted a couple of parks and found that I couldn't get any decent signals beyond 4 inches.
I ground balanced at 91 which is about 10 higher than I do in Northeast Ohio.
I tried everything: 8.5" X 11" coil, 5 x 8 coil, manual ground balancing at different levels, various sensitivity levels, changed batteries etc.
Dug a hole about 4 inches down and put a quarter in the bottom of it. When I passed my coil over it I got nada, nothing, zip, zilch.
What the heck ?

Any body else ever run into this sort of thing?
I guess I've never hunted in soil that was so highly mineralized.

I have well over 100 hours in on this machine so I know how to use it.
I normally hunt in Pro mode in zero discrimination with sensitivity anywhere from max to 3 bars under max. I like to keep my iron discrimination around 30.
I did manage to find over $6.30 in clad including 4 wheat pennies (oldest 1919).
I also found an old button that's pretty cool.

As soon as I got home, I went back to my test garden and my AT Pro works perfect. Just for reference, I get solid hits with my 8.5" X 11" coil on a quarter burred at 12".

Next time I will be taking my Tesoro and Whites to see how they handle the soil there.

markinswpa · Jul 18, 2017

Pretty good hunt. And yes I have run into the same problem with the AT Pro. Here in sw Pa. 91 is pretty much the norm on GB. I like to run in Pro mode wide open, only when I get chatter do I back it down. I thought I was having depth issues with mine. While the ground was wet I took a 3/8 ratchet handle and drove a quarter about 5in. down flat, filled the plug in and tamped it..Marked it with a plastic bottle cap. Nothing, tried it with the stock,the 5x8 and Nel storm. Contacted Garrett and told them I was having issues, not only with depth, but numbers jumping all over the place. They told me to send it in. Bought another AT Pro to use while it was in the shop. Talking with Garrett again they suggested before sending it in to compare the two, The jury is still out. The quarter is still missing. I bought an etrac in Feb. so the AT s are just languishing in the corner. and with the stock coil and a 6in. coiltek I still haven't been able to locate the quarter. ????? HH Mark

Mud-puppy · Jul 18, 2017

Overall, You did pretty danged good working that Hotspot...We have them around here, Foundry slag filled parks and black magnetized sand and the Pro can 'Sort of' hunt it...I run the same settings you do, Although, nothing sounds as it should due to the heavy mineralization..A Nickel could ping in like a Q, etc...so its a tough deal that would frustrate and confound a normal hunter going by the book on signals.... but If you get sort of Good at understanding it, it does open up and protect those targets from just about everyone else out there...Hunting those kinds of messes is not textbook by any means...You did REAL good in a tough environment there!

remmy · Jul 18, 2017

markinswpa said:
Pretty good hunt. And yes I have run into the same problem with the AT Pro. Here in sw Pa. 91 is pretty much the norm on GB. I like to run in Pro mode wide open, only when I get chatter do I back it down. I thought I was having depth issues with mine. While the ground was wet I took a 3/8 ratchet handle and drove a quarter about 5in. down flat, filled the plug in and tamped it..Marked it with a plastic bottle cap. Nothing, tried it with the stock,the 5x8 and Nel storm. Contacted Garrett and told them I was having issues, not only with depth, but numbers jumping all over the place. They told me to send it in. Bought another AT Pro to use while it was in the shop. Talking with Garrett again they suggested before sending it in to compare the two, The jury is still out. The quarter is still missing. I bought an etrac in Feb. so the AT s are just languishing in the corner. and with the stock coil and a 6in. coiltek I still haven't been able to locate the quarter. ????? HH Mark

Ooopse, I took the deus on a really long drive one day and hit your yard, only found 1 quarter! :laughing:

Wom 27 · Jul 18, 2017

It's amazing I find anything here in Philly !!!!

markinswpa · Jul 19, 2017

remmy said:
Ooopse, I took the deus on a really long drive one day and hit your yard, only found 1 quarter!

Haha I almost wish you had this things really got me scratching my head I was thinking about making a post and calling it The Mystery of the disappearing quarter t see what other mders have to say. Take care and happy Hunting mark

Sent from my SM-S902L using Tapatalk

markinswpa · Jul 19, 2017

Wom 27 said:
It's amazing I find anything here in Philly !!!!

I'm with you on that here in Pittsburgh it's pretty much the same our cities are very old with a lot of history but everything's been bulldozed and redeveloped it's hard to find virgin grade Happy Hunting mark

Sent from my SM-S902L using Tapatalk

metaladdict · Jul 19, 2017

pballwiz said:
So I went to visit my sister in law who live in Manayunk, PA which is in the Northwest part of Philadelphia.
Of course I brought my detector since it's an old city with lots of history.
I hunted a couple of parks and found that I couldn't get any decent signals beyond 4 inches.
I ground balanced at 91 which is about 10 higher than I do in Northeast Ohio.
I tried everything: 8.5" X 11" coil, 5 x 8 coil, manual ground balancing at different levels, various sensitivity levels, changed batteries etc.
Dug a hole about 4 inches down and put a quarter in the bottom of it. When I passed my coil over it I got nada, nothing, zip, zilch.
What the heck ?

Any body else ever run into this sort of thing?
I guess I've never hunted in soil that was so highly mineralized.

I have well over 100 hours in on this machine so I know how to use it.
I normally hunt in Pro mode in zero discrimination with sensitivity anywhere from max to 3 bars under max. I like to keep my iron discrimination around 30.
I did manage to find over $6.30 in clad including 4 wheat pennies (oldest 1919).
I also found an old button that's pretty cool.

As soon as I got home, I went back to my test garden and my AT Pro works perfect. Just for reference, I get solid hits with my 8.5" X 11" coil on a quarter burred at 12".

Next time I will be taking my Tesoro and Whites to see how they handle the soil there.

You get a quarter at 12 inches???? Your pulling my leg! :shrug:

pballwiz · Jul 19, 2017

metaladdict said:
You get a quarter at 12 inches???? Your pulling my leg!

In my test garden I can get a repeatable signal on a US quarter @ 12" with the 8.5" X 11" coil running wide open. My auto GB is 81 and I manually back it down to 76. I understand that test conditions do not necessarily emulate real hunting conditions. But I swear it hits it.
My Tesoro Vaquero hits it (with ease).
My White's Treasure Pro does not.

pballwiz · Jul 3, 2018

I am resurrecting this old thread because I am going back to Manayunk, PA in a couple of days.
This time I will be armed with my e-Trac.
I am very much looking forward to see how my e-Trac handles the conditions that pretty much crippled my ATPRO beyond 4 inches of depth.
I'll report back next week when I'm back in town.
Hopefully I will dig up some old history.
Fingers crossed.

Swinglow · Jul 3, 2018

pballwiz said:
I am resurrecting this old thread because I am going back to Manayunk, PA in a couple of days.
This time I will be armed with my e-Trac.
I am very much looking forward to see how my e-Trac handles the conditions that pretty much crippled my ATPRO beyond 4 inches of depth.
I'll report back next week when I'm back in town.
Hopefully I will dig up some old history.
Fingers crossed.

It'll be a hot one for sure. Good luck. Curious how you do.

waltr · Jul 3, 2018

The Manayunk section of Phily has a lot of metamorphic rock, mica schist, etc. Wonder if that is the cause.
Or just lots of clinkers (burnt coal), crushed iron slag etc.

Am interested to hear how the other detectors do there.

pballwiz · Jul 9, 2018

Well, the e-Trac performed a whole lot better on the soil in Manayunk (PA) than the AT-Pro.
Only had time for a 3 hour hunt yesterday. It was hot and sticky. So much so that I would've waited for cooler day if it wasn't for the fact that it was my last day visiting.
I dug $11.36 Including 7 wheats.
10 nickels were also part of my total.i have never dug so many nickels in one hunt before. Every signal that produced 12-13 was a nickel.
I also scored 2 $1.00 coins.
Believe it or not. These were the first dollar coins I've ever dug. A 1979 SBA and a Sacajawea.
Is once it was so hot, I cherry picked and did not dig any shallow targets unless they were in the quarter range.
I did manage to rescue a 1920 merc and a piece of silver jewelry.
I'm hoping to make a return trip in November when it will be cooler and the ground a little softer.

waltr · Jul 9, 2018

Nice finds.

Does the Etrak ground balance verse the AT pro?
Just wondering what the difference is between these two MD's and and ground conditions.

My At Pro ran into some trouble in Philadelphia

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